As It Is Now: Reimagining Time Through Tradition

By Michelle Hromin

I created a project based on the calendar year and it changed my perspective on how to embrace my identity.

For most of my life, I’ve been in spaces where people haven’t known where my country is or referred to me as the “Game of Thrones”girl. I have always had an immense pride for my Croatian heritage, but for the longest time I have struggled to embrace it, especially in the context of my artistic work. I grew up listening to some of the most amazing Croatian artists, from Jole to Milo Hrnić to Oliver Dragojević that inspired me to be a daring, courageous, Balkan artist. Meeting composer Michael Spiroff in 2017 at my undergrad and later asking him to write me a piece was the first step to reconnecting with and learning to love this part of myself.

Michael is one of the only people I’ve met during my studies that is from my part of the world. We’ve spent hours trading stories that range from our wild family dynamics to having relatives escape war-torn Yugoslavia to the very dichotomy of our own existences; being too Balkan for our American/Canadian friends, and too English-presenting for anyone in our home countries. When discussing the idea of a new work for solo clarinet, we inspired one another to dig deeper into our roots and start researching Slavic traditions, practices, and chants from this part of the world, and found ourselves clinging to the stories behind the Slavic calendar.

Instead of organizing the months by number as practiced in the Gregorian calendar, the Slavic calendar emphasizes agricultural and weather patterns that signify shifts in season over the course of the year. One of my favourites is Prosinac (December) which roughly translates to “the beginning of the sun’s shining”. Though the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere brings the shortest day of the year, the last 10 days of the calendar year signal slow progress toward light and warmth ahead. The months of the Slavic calendar turned into what is now Kalendar: 12 Miniatures for 2021, a set of solo clarinet miniatures written by Michael Spiroff and premiered by me online during each month of this year.

Creating a project that circles around the idea of time during one of the most confusing and unstructured periods of my life has been interesting to say the least. I have not only felt insecurities around my identity and the authority I have to speak on my cultural experiences, but also in the validity of my work as a 20-something year old contemporary clarinetist. I would often ask myself, “Who am I to be putting out a project of this scope?” I spent time reflecting on how my ancestors cultivated a sense of time based on what fruits were in season or the subtlest change in temperature; this reminded me that there truly is something special about where I come from. There are cultural practices and memories that are uniquely mine, and I feel it is my calling to work to share this with the world at large through my artistic work. I am Michelle Hromin; I am a Croatian-American clarinetist.

Listen to Kalendar